SeamusMac
Well-Known Member
I brought a case of my Wyeast 3068 fermented hard cider over to a friend's place one night before a party for the group to try out. The bulk of the cider (16L) is being reserved for my 21st birthday party, so these are the thoughts from my friends while tasting a "young" cider.
Legal drinking age in Canada is 18/19 FYI.
The cider started at 1.056 and finished at 1.004, give or take a few gravity points based on temperature variations. That's about 5.5% ABV if I'm doing my calculations correctly (SG-FGx131). After 2 weeks in the bottle there wasn't any carbonation, much to my dismay. Although I believe the process might be beginning because I detected a very faint peanut butter after-taste, which was much stronger during the original primary fermentation.
The comments were generally positive. The apple flavour came through, and although my friends are used to sweetened commercial hard ciders they still enjoyed it. It tasted to many of them like weak white wine with apple juice. This is where the comments started to take a turn for the worst. The most profound comment was that it tasted very "strong", which in my mind means hoochy. Perhaps it was just the lack of carbonation that reduced the appeal of the cider, although I'm not sure how much more a Hefeweizen-inspired cider can mellow after having spent a total of 3 months aging in primary, secondary and bottle...
I hope that the cider will carbonate fully by my birthday in September and that the carbonation will offer some opposition to the alcoholic burn, which I quite enjoyed...
Legal drinking age in Canada is 18/19 FYI.
The cider started at 1.056 and finished at 1.004, give or take a few gravity points based on temperature variations. That's about 5.5% ABV if I'm doing my calculations correctly (SG-FGx131). After 2 weeks in the bottle there wasn't any carbonation, much to my dismay. Although I believe the process might be beginning because I detected a very faint peanut butter after-taste, which was much stronger during the original primary fermentation.
The comments were generally positive. The apple flavour came through, and although my friends are used to sweetened commercial hard ciders they still enjoyed it. It tasted to many of them like weak white wine with apple juice. This is where the comments started to take a turn for the worst. The most profound comment was that it tasted very "strong", which in my mind means hoochy. Perhaps it was just the lack of carbonation that reduced the appeal of the cider, although I'm not sure how much more a Hefeweizen-inspired cider can mellow after having spent a total of 3 months aging in primary, secondary and bottle...
I hope that the cider will carbonate fully by my birthday in September and that the carbonation will offer some opposition to the alcoholic burn, which I quite enjoyed...